Grandstanding from Gillard is simply not on

This is the greatest piece of political grandstanding by any prime minister in the nation's 112-year history (''PM's nod for Labor's first Aboriginal MP'', January 23). Not only has Julia Gillard knifed a traditional, long-serving female senator, but she didn't have the decency to inform Senator Trish Crossin.

Yes, we need more indigenous and other minorities involved in our political processes but not by these underhanded tactics. Gillard should be left in no doubt that this decision will come back to haunt her, even more dramatically than the knifing of Kevin Rudd. The electors of the Northern Territory hopefully won't forget this action on election-day.

I am not sure how Marcia Langton can describe Nova Peris as a ''truly great contender'', when Peris has shown so much interest in the political process that she isn't a member of any political party, let alone Labor.

Michael Hayden Kiama Downs

So, will Nova Peris rescue the Labor Party the same way Peter Garrett has?

Peter Thompson Killara

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The arrogance of pretend Prime Minister Gillard, by ignoring Labor custom and deciding who will stand for the Senate to represent the Northern Territory is just a taste of her future leadership.

Sadly, she can get away with it because of a coalition of subservient women and obsequious, weak men that her cabinet has become. These are the people she needs to cover for her distinct shortcomings in both negotiation and real leadership.

Hugh Hanafi Hayes Springfield

How about some credit for a Labor leader who doesn't use a faceless factional heavyweight to tap members, but does it herself, upfront and in public? It's a bit different from the traditional Labor approach. The bleating from Senators Cameron and Crossin about the Peris issue is curious as they were silent about Kevin Rudd's parachuting of Peter Garrett into a House of Representatives seat. Oh, I forgot, they're Rudd supporters.

James Mahoney McKellar (ACT)

Is Prime Minister Gillard in breach of the Anti-Discrimination Act, on both racist and sexist grounds, by publicly declaring that she is endeavouring to install Australia's first indigenous female federal parliamentarian, citing those qualifications as justification for ousting a non-indigenous incumbent and evidently not considering a male as a candidate?

Ralph Schneider Newtown

Surely there has never been a clearer demonstration of Gillard's abysmal leadership credentials than her decision to offend all Australians by endorsing Nova Peris for the Senate, in what can only be characterised as a dreadful act of tokenism.

Without for a moment taking issue with Peris's achievements as an Olympian and an Australian, the fact remains that political parties establish preselection processes so as to protect due process, ensure transparency and to try to ensure that the most capable candidates are selected.

While all the major political parties have abused their pre-selection processes over the years, when the Prime Minister and leader of the parliamentary Labor Party so publicly and so cynically abuses democratic process, there can be no hope for her party's future.

John Richardson Wallagoot

Chinese force to be reckoned with

It would seem from the comments of Colonel Liu Mingfu that not only has China imported and refashioned the failed, planet-exploiting, societally dehumanising capitalist model from the United States, but all the arrogance that goes with that as well (''Shun US 'tiger' and Japanese 'wolf', colonel warns'', January 23).

I grew up under the shadow of American imperialism with all the insensitivities and ignorance of cultural diversity and nuance of opinion that implies but it would seem that my children and perhaps theirs will live under a Chinese hegemony.

And as much as I feel the US is a failed democracy (the manipulation of the electoral process that saw George Bush jnr elevated to the office of president being just one example of egregious distortion of the process), it at least in its public utterances and when talking to itself and others about itself has an aspiration to democracy.

The Chinese powers that be are prepared to slaughter their own people if they aspire to democracy (Tianamen Square).

The presumption of the colonel is overweening and speaks of a culture that thinks it is at the zenith of civilisation and therefore is not to be questioned.

So by sheer force of numbers this nation will impose its will on our region whether we like it or not. Probably the only thing that will see the Chinese empire crumble will be the social and environmental degradation wrought by their pursuit of the very economic model that gives them this moment of hegemony.

But I would imagine that the current Chinese leadership has as much understanding of irony as it does democracy.

Chris McKimm Karangi

Appalling lack of independence

It's bad enough that a senior executive of Crown casino was allowed to vet the Premier's media release and appalling that a heliport was considered in the middle of the harbour for high rollers' pleasure.

The revelation that the accounting company which is doing a so-called independent assessment for the government (albeit behind closed doors) on the benefits of the new casino is also on Crown's payroll is just staggering. Fancy a bet now that there won't be poker machines?

One-track minds

If America can …

I've always considered the Americans to be far more conservative than us liberal thinking Aussies. Then I heard Obama's inauguration speech - support for gay rights, climate change and gun control.

Julia? Tony?

Michael Jones Wahroonga

Bolt lacks charge

Should the opinion of the convicted racial discriminator Andrew Bolt really carry any weight in an inquiry into racial vilification laws (''Bolt: racial vilification inquiry is 'Leninist''', January 23)? Barry O'Farrell could do worse than being called an idiot by someone with this much credibility.

Mark Pearce Richmond

School of thought

Lauren Fisher, who unschools her daughters, offers them a very narrow palette from which to choose (''Unschooling truly in a class of its own'', January 23). If she allowed her children to eat only ''what they felt'' they needed, they would be only able to choose from what was made available to them by her. Young children do not have the knowledge or experience to make informed choices. This is what a broad education is all about.

Anne Szczurowski Lambton

Desk diseases

With regard to food poisoning, I would be more concerned about workstations at workplaces, of which a study revealed that they contain nearly 400 times as many microbes than toilet seats (''Find the fridge: spoiled foods cost business a fortune'', smh.com.au, January 23).

Steve Barrett Glenbrook

Follow the script

Not so super

Like both Peters, Fyfe (Letters, January 22) and Spencer (Letters, January 23), I am a middle-aged white (or very nearly white) Australian male. However, having been superannuated to death, I am feeling the lonely burden of solipsism. What was once gold has turned out to be coal.

Tom Loveday Erskineville

Real concerns about rights of women lost in debate

No, John Clark (Letters, January 23), breasts are not sex organs. They are not genitals. When mothers say breastfeeding is natural, they mean it is the natural way for a baby to feed, just like the natural way for an adult to feed is consuming solid food via the mouth. Both should be able to take place in public.

The fact that breasts can also be titillating is moot. So can the mouth or legs, yet we are still allowed to use those parts of our bodies to eat, talk, and walk in public. Attempting to draw parallels between copulating and defecating (as I've seen in various comments online) is ridiculous and debases very real concerns regarding women's rights and the violation of the anti-discrimination law. Grow up.

Alacoque Dash Ultimo

Richard Scully (Letters, January 23) says that David Koch has no right to an opinion on the matter of breastfeeding in public. I might or might not agree with Koch's opinion on the matter but I would fight to my dying breath for his right to hold his opinion, because that's what democracy is about.

I actually find that sharing a coffee shop with one or more mothers breastfeeding brings out a tender feeling in me. I certainly don't find it offensive.

To Rosemary O'Brien (Letters, January 23), let me say that I have never found the image of a mother breastfeeding titillating but I may find her habit of ''flopping them around'' a little off-putting.

Our parents taught us that when we were in public we should always be aware of the presence of other people and to ensure that we impacted on those people as little as possible. So it seems that the issue could come to a good conclusion if those on each side of the discussion exercised mutual respect.

Bob Passier Balmain

Taxpayers get a raw deal over feral hunt

Several Herald correspondents have portentously drawn on the ''fox in charge of the henhouse'' analogy to illustrate the folly of giving the Game Council of NSW control over shooting in national parks (''Game boss suspended over illegal hunt claim'', January 23).

Now that the head of the Game Council is accused of hunting without a licence, trespass and animal cruelty, perhaps the O'Farrell government might reconsider the several million dollars provided annually to this pseudo-conservation outfit whose licence holders killed about 15,000 animals, mostly rabbits, on public land in the year to last April.

That equates to $159 in taxpayer funds per feral animal. What a bargain. What a worthwhile organisation.

Anne Ackroyd Melba (ACT)

Trigger fingers

So young men prefer to use guns to settle petty disputes these days ( '''Idiot factor' drives gun crime'', January 23). That's hardly surprising. It's easier to shoot someone from a distance than to engage them in a hand-to-hand fight. And until we solve the problem of how these cowardly wimps get access to guns, we can look forward to more gun violence.

Cafe-train kids

They are still a pram-stop, by the way, given today's off-roaders actually stop people getting past - not to mention ankle-biters zig-zagging every-which-way taking Buzz Lightyear for a fly around the tables.

When a Pittsburgh cafe in the US banned children under six, business rose 20 per cent.

Perhaps we can learn from the French, who train children from the get-go to know their place and not to throw food.

Terry Simpson Point Clare

Just good ol' boys

There is a very troubling, over-the-horizon aspect to shooting in national parks that does not seem to be receiving attention. It is certainly not understood by the O'Farrell government.

Pandering to a special interest group in such a manner is to place that group a very long way in front of the interests of the vast majority of citizens.

The quite likely, or at least not-to-be-unexpected, political consequence of this extraordinary elevation to super-citizenry is going to be a greatly increased awareness of political possibilities and political ambition among some gun owners.

Don't be surprised if, just a little way down the track, we have in Australia, courtesy of the O'Farrell government, our very own version of the 1977 Cincinnati revolt, at which point the formerly conservative National Rifle Association became the raging beast that today towers over American political decisions and indecisions. There would not even have to be a revolt in this country, simply the formation of a radical association of gun owners based on the successful model of the post-1977 NRA.

Think the gun laws are set in stone? Or hunters are just a bunch of good blokes out for a bit of fun?

Think of them as good ol' boys instead and see how safe you feel.

Peter Scott Kings Cross

Clone ethics

In a classic example of why ethics cannot automatically be left to ''respected scientists'', Professor George Church (hereinafter known as ''Frankenstein'') is looking for an ''adventurous female human'' to bear a Neanderthal child (''Neanderthal clone possible - scientist'', January 23).

There appears to be no thought of the profound loneliness such an anachronistic misfit would endure. Further, given the present human race's shameful history of racism, the modern slave traders will already be salivating.

Peter Fleming Ryde

Two greens a red

A woman was pushing her baby daughter in a pram at a pedestrian crossing in Glebe on Monday. Both were injured when a car turned right into that crossing ("Woman, pram hit by car at crossing'', January 22).

This raises the question of whether this was an instance of the common, and in my view hazardous, practice of giving pedestrians and turning traffic the green light at the same time. Especially in the interest of children's safety, it would surely be wiser to hold up all traffic when pedestrians are given the green light at crossings.

Lyndsay Connors Edgecliff

HSC disabilities

Over the past few years evidence of independent schools justifiably taking advantage of HSC disability provisions, and the disparity that has developed between them and the public sector, has been readily available (''Independents far more primed to apply for HSC help,'' January 23). This is highly disturbing when it is rationalised that a far greater number of students with disabilities reside within the public system.

The solution resides in commonsense. If public schools had funding to employ staff to individually devise programs for public school students to access medical services and special reports for the Board of Studies Unit, and to liaise with parents and teachers for access to students' examination needs, then disparity rates may well be different.

There does not appear to be a level playing field. Many in public schools are missing out.